A stay at home mummy who wants to be a mfw - Yes I can and Yes I will!

I_want_a_baby

Morning All!

Thanks for the birthday messages, I had a lovely day & evening. No lie in this morning but thankfully not feeling too fragile & hubby is cooking scotch pancakes for breakfast...nom nom!!

pinkypig - do you have a diary...if not please come back here and let me know your plan!! I really think that a lot of people could change their circumstances if they wanted to but it does involve a change in lifestyle which you have to be fully committed too! I look forward to hearing your goals!

Thanks TwinnyD - lie ins are few and far between now so they are very appreciated!

Hi shirlgirl - I am going to wear the cardi today - I love it and feel really happy I got it - as I haven't been in spending mode this last week it felt really frivolous and such a treat to buy it! Glad the cash envelopes are working for you x

Todays update so far:
Just did a mums-i-view survey £2.08!
Qualified for daily survey on swagbucks so did that and a couple of other bits and got 93SB - exceeded daily goal of 50SB - Balance 1316SB.
Ridiculous amounts of pasta leftover as well as some pizza & half a cheesecake. Half of all pasta frozen last night and other half in fridge. Will do quite a few lunches & teas! Used pizza for lunch and one of the pastas for tea.
2SP from daily clicks.
Went on a family walk down the canal, had a lovely 2.5 mile walk in the sun & even 'rescued' two baby mice! so cute!

Updated:
Just did our banks/budgets/purses ready for next week:
Savings made this week (NB only actual cash in bank/tin are counted so no surveys as of yet as they haven't paid out.)

12.00 -Food underspend left in bank less party overspend.
5.00 - Fritter money underspend.
17.00 - TRF'd to ISA.

2.85 - Food underspend cash purse
4.85 - Takeaway underspend (intact!)
7.70 - Into house sealed tin.

Total house savings this week - £24.70
Total house savings since beginning of July 2012 - £74.53

Received AA renewal letter - they kindly had given me a 15% discount and my renewal premium was 'only' going to be £102. Pah!
Did a quick comparison between breakdown providers & cashback sites.
Took out a new policy with AA for £74 through quidco earning £42 cashback therefore policy would cost £32! However I had budgeted £90. Therefore I will put the difference between the £90 saved and the £74 paid into house savings and eventually when the cashback is paid I will put that in savings also.

Opened up a claim with quidco for uswitch cashback of £21 not tracked.

Checked gas & electric usage - Used 0 units of Gas & used average of 10.8 units of Electric/day. Want to get electric usage down will try harder next week!

Did some winter preparations -
Decided to fill our coal store ready for our open fires this winter. Already contacted local companies and compared prices. We will order 9 bags of coal and then we should have more than enough to last the winter. Hopefully this will save us money compared to buying the coal in the winter time.

Bought some flannelette sheets from isme.com. Bought two double sheets in blue, two single sheets in blue, 4 pillowcases in blue, two single sheets in lilac and two pillowcases in lilac - they were in the sale on bogof, I got 10% new customer discount giving a total for all of £20.51 with £1.23 cashback to come in Quidco! Our house is freezing in the winter and you can actually feel the draught through the windows in the bedrooms so I am looking forward to being cosy whatever the weather.

Off swimming with my friend tonight - looking forward to the natter & exercise!

Happy sundays x

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Afternoon all.

Bit of a slow day today but not all bad.

Update so far:
12SB (will try and qualify for the daily survey after 3pm as I don't qualify at the moment).
54SP
No other surveys done.

Through the post:
40p Walkers coupon.

Today -
Planning on a NSD.
Leftovers for dinner & tea!
Did some learning games about numbers, clothes & weather with DS using some resources I had printed out and laminated ages ago.
Finally got the reusable nappies out, stuffed them and put them on the smallest popper selection - they WILL be used from next nappy change.
Getting up to date with the washing, I am drying everything on the airer despite it not being too warm in the house.
Making some notes of 'categories' on the bill account s/sheet that I may be able to trf some £'s into the ISA from as long as no further spends this month.

Stacey x

Beckyy

I hope you had a lovely birthday! Let us know what your new sheets are like when they arrive. I should really start preparing for winter too. It doesn't really feel like we've had a Summer yet! x

I_want_a_baby

Thanks Beckyy! I will be sure to update about the sheets!
I just hope we will have a nice summer in August/September time!

Well not a lot more to report today (in a good way though!).

Ended up with 62SP today & 84SB :T

Not going to do anymore now, just have a relaxing evening in front of the box.

Speak to you all tomorrow!

Stacey x

I_want_a_baby

Today:

NSD
Bargain flannelette sheets arrived - SO happy with them they are really good quality & so soft. Will wash them later in the week when they can be line dried.
Reusable nappies in use - Used 4 today so far, so saved 27p (9p/disposable).
Notified that I have £3.14 in Quidco to be paid on next payment run - this will go to house savings when received.
Swagbucks - 85SB earned - Balance 1495SB.
Superpoints - 5SP earned - Balance 573SP.
No post & got DQ'd from a few other surveys.
Entered a couple of competitions.
Won a 20p walkers coupon via their britometer game on FB

To do -
Write meal plan for the rest of the week.
Write shopping list referring to meal plan and vouchers available.
Start filling in new diary.
Keep an eye on electric usage.
No computer use this evening - a night away from both the computer and TV screens.
Early to bed - Only got 4 hours sleep last night as I think my 6 month old DD is starting to go through the teething phase!

Stacey x

savingmummy

Happy belated birthday.

How do you get your SB`s? i`m struggling :rotfl:

I_want_a_baby

Hi saving mummy -

Swagbucks - what I do

Daily poll - every day - 1SB
NOSO click through the offers not on them - every day - 2SB
Searches - enter words or phrases in the search box and search them until win a prize - every day - can be anywhere from 5SB to 27SB!
Daily survey - can only do one a day 70SB - can be difficult to build the points up when you don't qualify for this.
Peanutlabs - Opinion survey - I qualify a couple of times a week for this 31SB.
Videos - both on the homepage and on various of the tabs in the special offers - normally 1SB per view but some are up to 5SB. I keep the laptop on mute and click these while watching tv.
Also check your email daily as pretty much every day I have a 'today only' video to watch for 2 or 3SB.
Check the trusted surveys daily to look for new surveys you can do.

I hope that helps - feel free to ask any more questions.

Stacey x

Oh and try and refer your friends using the links provided in your account as every time they win on a search you win the same number of points too!.

savingmummy

Thank you hunni.
I have been very unlucky with the surveys always do a good 20% then get a survey is now closed OR not qualified
Not won a thing on search either LOL!!

I didnt know about the videos which give more then 1sb - will check them out

I_want_a_baby

I have won every single day at least once with the surveys so just keep searching until you do .

I do find the surveys within the special offers quite poor in terms of qualifying for them however the daily survey on the homepage I normally qualify for 5 out of 7 days x

savingmummy

Just won 7sb on search AND from their facebook page 5sb for entering `postcard` in the gimme box :j